Today's News

Several Harriman Middle School students decided they wanted to do something to support the children and families left devastated after the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., last month.
After only four days, at least four full boxes had been filled with teddy bears headed to the Newtown Fire Department for distribution.
“They lost their friends, maybe their brothers and sisters,” said Carly Harmon, who came up with the idea for the teddy bears.

Unknowns about the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, are affecting workers compensation cases in Roane County.
Chancellor Frank V. Williams III turned down two settlement agreements in early December.
One woman wept at the delay because she needed the settlement money in order to deal with a family matter.
In both cases, Williams expressed reservations about approving the agreements due to uncertainty about the future of health care in America.
He directed the parties to negotiate again and re-submit their proposals.

Want to avoid the misery of a New Year’s hangover? Loyola University Health System family physician Dr. Aaron Michelfelder offers the following tips:
Before the Party:
• Plan to drink moderately — a maximum of five drinks for men and three drinks for women during a minimum three-hour period.
• To prevent inflammation, take an anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen or Aleve.
During the Party:
• Eat first, and then drink, not the other way around. Food slows the absorption of alcohol.

A trustee’s deed has been recorded in the Roane County Register of Deeds Office on three tracts of Houston family property.
James F. Logan Jr., a Cleveland, Tenn., attorney who represented Leon Houston in his murder case, is listed as the new owner of the property. The trustee’s deed, dated Sept. 21,was filed with the office in November.
“To the best of my knowledge, the actual consideration or value of the property at the time of purchase and until the Houstons are ejected from the property is $105,000,” the deed said.

Roane Medical Center is moving from downtown Harriman to a new facility in Midtown in February. Not only does the move have the potential to change medicine in Roane County, but it also is having a huge impact on the county’s burgeoning new economic center in Midtown. Many medical offices have already made the move there, and, more recently, a gas station and fast food restaurant have announced plans to build near the hospital.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development is warning the estimated 30,000 unemployment claimants who are receiving federally extended unemployment insurance that they are facing the abrupt end of those benefits when the program expires on Jan. 2.

In 2008, Congress created the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program — commonly known as EUC08 — to provide unemployment benefits to workers who had exhausted the first 26 weeks of state benefits (maximum).